[Killswitch]

Well, I installed my new Axle. I have a 2007 S model so this did not have the OEM locker set up. When I originally did my Titan Swap I changed out the C200 axle for an older M226. Over time I located an almost brand new (less than 1k miles, still has the factory stickers on it etc) M226 right near me so I went and looked at it, purchased it, and am in the process of selling my older one. Since this is the third Rear Axle Swap I've done I figured I'd take as many pictures as I could and do my best to write up a How-to: on the subject as I have not been able to locate one.

For info on the wiring of the Locker with Indicator light, see post #3

Before you get started on this, there are a couple things you need to consider. If you are swapping out an Axle from an Off Road/Pro-4X model then the Gear Ratios will be either 3:36 or 3:69. Depending on what type of Xterra you have, you may have to swap out the Front Differential as well as your Gear Ratios HAVE to match. So I'll use myself as an example, I have an Automatic Transmission S Model Xterra which means that my Gear Ratio was 3:13. I had to swap my Front Diff out for one out of an Off Road Model with 3:36 Gears. This is a list of what I BELIEVE the Gear Ratios are for each model. I cannot confirm this 100%, you will need to do some research and confirm this. It has been covered many times on this forum so a quick search will turn up an answer for you.

Auto Trans "X" Model Xterra: 3:13
Auto Trans "S" Model Xterra: 3:13
Auto Trans "SE" Model Xterra: 3:13
Auto Trans "OR" Model Xterra: 3:36
Auto Trans "Pro-4X" Model Xterra: 3:36

Manual Trans "X" Model Xterra: 3:54
Manual Trans "S" Model Xterra: 3:54
Manual Trans "SE" Model Xterra: 3:54
Manual Trans "OR" Model Xterra: 3:69
Manual Trans "Pro-4X" Model Xterra: 3:69

A good source for finding Axles: Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market
Sources for other parts include: RockAuto and of course JerseyParts!

What you will need:
This is a basic list of tools and parts that you will likely need. This list is not all inclusive, I simply made it as a little bit of a guideline so make sure you do your homework and gather anything else you think you may need.
-New U-bolts
-New bolts to bolt the driveshaft to the pinion flange (I don't know if it calls for you to replace these but they are very easy to strip so not a bad idea to replace them)
-Brake Fluid (since you are disconnecting the brake lines you will need to bleed the brakes)
-Diff Fluid (M226 takes 75W140 and C200 takes 75W90)
-Drain Pan
-Good Socket Set (At least 10mm up to 21mm)
-3/8" Drive Ratchet
-1/2" Drive Ratchet (Try to get one you can use as a Breaker Bar, if not, get a Breaker Bar as well)
-Torque Wrench
-10mm Flare Nut Wrench
-4 Jack Stands (2 must be tall enough to support the truck with the Rear Axle off the ground at full droop)
-good Floor Jack
-Wheel Chocks
-Shop Creeper (I did this on a 20* day, the last thing you want to do is spend the day on cold Concrete)
-Angle Grinder or Dremel
-Hammer

Time to Get Started:
STEP ONE:
Step one of this process is getting the rear of the truck safely up on Jack Stands in order to get to work. First, place your Wheel Chocks in front of the front tires (If you have 4 wheel chocks, place them in the front and back of each front tires). Make sure these are safe and secure as you will be spending a lot of your afternoon under the truck.

Next, head to the back of the vehicle with your Floor Jack. My Suspension has out grown my Floor Jack so I lift from the Rear Diff. This will not hurt anything so long as you are careful to place the jack securely so the jack does not slip off etc. In this way I can Jack the truck up all the way and get the Jack Stands under the Frame. NOTICE: BEFORE I lower the Jack I remove the Rear Tires which provides room for the Rear Suspension to go to Full Droop without touching the ground (If you don't have an Impact Wrench you need to break the Lug Nuts loose before lifting the tires off the ground).

CAUTION: The big thing here is making sure the Frame Rails rest securely on the Jack Stands and are not going to slip at any point during the work.

I place the Jack Stands a few inches ahead of the Forward Leaf Springs Mounts. If you trust your Sliders though, you may also place the Jack Stands under the Sliders.

Once you have the tires off, place them under the Frame Rails so that 'if' the truck were to come off the Jack Stands, it doesn't just drop straight to the ground.

Once you have the Jack Stands in place and the Tires laid under the Frame Rails, you can start to lower the truck onto the Jack Stands and let the Suspension Droop.

CAUTION: Be very careful here, because the truck is at an angle, the Frame Rails like to slide on the Jack Stands. Take your time and make sure the Jack Stands aren't leaning and the truck is secure. Better to waste 5 mins Jacking the truck back up, than to catch a falling Xterra with your face.

Ready to get to Work;

STEP TWO:
It's time to start getting the old Axle out. Start with the lower Shock Mounts. Don't remove the rear Shocks completely unless you are replacing them, just get the lower Shock Mounts undone and push the Shocks out of the way. I've found the easiest way to remove the lower Shock bolts is a large Adjustable Wrench and the appropriate Socket (For most it should be a 19mm). The exact process may vary on what type of Shocks you are running though. Note: (I do actually own a Breaker Bar but often out of laziness I use this old Torque Wrench as I do not use it for Torque and it Ratchets so it speeds the process up. If you use the Torque Wrench like a large Ratchet though, do not rely on it for Accurate Torque Specs)

Lower Shock Mounts;

Be prepared for this if you wheel your truck. The Shock Mounts take a beating. Just grip the Mount with the large Adjustable Wrench and get it roughly back in shape. Don't try to make it perfect, it is guaranteed to happen again.

With the Shock undone, just let it hang, they can be moved around as needed from there.

STEP THREE:
Next step is to disconnect the Rear Drive Shaft from the Pinion Flange.
These are 14mm bolts. Now, on my truck I have 6 of these bolts. I know there are some trucks that have 4 bolt Flanges though so stick your head under there and find out ahead of time. A small Box Wrench works well on these. The key is to use the closed end to break them lose though so that you don't strip out the bolt head. Note: You'll want the Emergency Brake on when you do this or the Truck in Gear so that the Drive Shaft is held in place for you to crack the bolts free. I use a Bungee Cord to hold the Drive Shaft up out of the way once it's free too.

Here is the Flange you are working on. Remove those 6 bolts and the Drive Shaft will be free.

Here it is all done. I was doing all this by myself so I didn't get many pictures of the actions as I needed both hands to perform the work. In order to reach all six bolts some people may need to rotate the Drive Shaft.

STEP FOUR:
Next step is to remove the ABS Lines. These little plugs can be a huge pain in the ass to undo. I have cut mine away from the Frame and use Needle Nose Pliers to Compress the little catch on the plug and then pull straight out.

NOTICE: BE CAREFUL! If you slip with the Needle Nose Pliers you can cut your ABS Wire, I did this on my front ones when doing the Titan Swap and had to Solder them back together.
Passenger ABS Clip:

Driver ABS Clip:

STEP FIVE:
Now for the Emergency Brake Lines. One key step here is to make sure you have released your Hand Brake or the lines will be impossible to handle. All the bolts holding the E-brake Lines in place are 12mm bolts.

NOTICE: I would highly recommend doing your best to make sure the new axle you are getting comes with the E-brake Lines in place (most junk yards should do this automatically) as the E-brakes are a huge pain to take a part. The simple route here is to disconnect the E-brake Lines and remove them with the Axle. Here are the lines in question:

Here is the first place that they need to be disconnected (should be right near the end of your drive shaft where it is hanging out of the way now.)

Here is the second place (just follow the lines up towards the front of the vehicle and you will see this).

And disconnected:

Now, at this point the last things attached to your Axle are the U-bolts (which actually hold the whole Axle in place on the Leaf Springs) and the Brake Lines. It would make life easier if we could just disconnect the Brake Lines and then the U-bolts and swap everything out, but we can't as the Brake Lines are full of Brake Fluid which you don't want all over the ground/garage floor. So, the Brake Lines will get left till last.

STEP SIX:
The U-bolts will vary for many people. In my case I have a U-bolt Flip Kit so the U-bolts are inverted from the standard set up. The concept is the same though so this shouldn't be hard for most people to figure out. In my case the nuts are 22mm, but if I remember correctly the stock nuts were 17mm or 19mm.

And this is what it will look like with the U-bolts gone:

STEP SEVEN:
Alright, now that the U-bolts are gone, these Brake Lines are the only thing attaching your axle to the vehicle. My new Axle did not come with Brake Rotors or Calipers, so at this point I was out of time on leaving the Brake Lines connected. Get yourself some type of Drain Pan for this.

NOTICE: DO NOT use the same Drain Pan as you use for your Diff Fluid as most places that recycle Diff Fluid, but do not recycle Brake Fluid. I used a spare jug that I use often for bleeding my Brakes.
Here are the Brake Lines:

The first step is to loosen these two bolts, do not take them all the way out as they need to hold the Brake Lines in place so you can disconnect the hardened lines in a few minutes. Loosening these bolts though allows you to expedite the movement of the dripping Brake Line into the Drain Bucket as soon as you can get them separated. Note: I recommend using some Rubber Gloves to avoid getting Brake Fluid on your hands.

Now that those two bolts are loose, use a 10mm Flare Nut Wrench (This is important as these Brake Line Fasteners can be stripped very easily) and remove the Hardened Brake Lines that are attached to the Axle. There will be some small leakage of Brake Fluid here. Note: The best thing I can recommend is to place a rag around the Axle to prevent and Brake Fluid from getting on the ground and also to try to keep it off the Paint on the Axle. I did not use the rag here as I had done this before and felt I could do it fairly quickly, I will say though that the first time I did this I had to clean up plenty of Brake Fluid.

You'll see the Brake Lines here in a Bag, this was simply temporary, I had that on hand to tuck them up out of the way and get the Drain Can ready, right after this I put the Brake Lines in the Drain Can, but didn't get pictures.

In this picture you'll see that all that remains on the Axle are the Hard Lines, these run over to the Brake Calipers on each side. You'll notice that there is some Brake Fluid on my Axle, that is because I had a 'Brain Fart' and forgot that Fluid was going to be coming back out of the Hard Lines as well so I ended up having to wipe a little up.

Well, the Axle is now fully Disconnected from the truck and is ready to be removed. I took zero pictures of this event as I was doing this by my self and if you know anyone that can pick up an M226 with one hand and take pictures with the other then I would like to meet them. What I would suggest for this though is to have no less than 2 people and a good Floor Jack. I placed the Jack under the Diff just as though I was jacking the truck up again and lifted the Axle off the Leaf Springs. That's the easy part. From there you have to wheel the Axle back and forth a little and slowly wiggle it out from under the truck. Keep in mind, it will have to come out diagonally, the driver side needs to come out first or the Gas Tank will get in your way.
Here are both Axles, the old and new, side by side;

 

[Killswitch]

Putting the New Axle in

Now that the old Axle is out of the truck it is time to start working on getting the new Axle under the truck.

As I said earlier, the new Axle I bought did not come with Brake Rotors or Calipers so it was time to switch them over.

Started with the Calipers, before you can completely remove them, you need to free the Brake Lines. You'll see that the Hard Lines, (that you disconnected from your Rear Brake Lines when removing the old Axle), run in opposite directions on the Axle over to each of the Calipers. You may or may not need the hard lines, this will all be dependent on what parts came on your new Axle.

Use a pair of Pliers and remove the Gold Clip you see here in this picture. There will be one on each side of the Axle that holds the soft line coming from the Caliper in place where it connects to the hard line that runs across the Axle. Go ahead and leave the Hard Lines connected, just pull the clips and that will allow you to pull the Hard Line through the hole and you can just transfer the whole unit to your new Axle.

If you don't need the Hard Lines, you will need to use a 10mm Flare Nut Wrench BEFORE you undo the clips and just disconnect the Hard Lines. This is what you would be left with;

The next step is to remove the Caliper itself and transfer the whole thing over to the new Axle (Brake Lines included). The Caliper is held on by two 19mm bolts, crack those lose and remove the Caliper. Note: DO NOT bolt the Caliper on to the new Axle yet as you have to transfer the Rotors first.

Once the Calipers are off you should be able to pull the Rotors Straight off and transfer them directly on to the new Axle.
Rotor removed:

Rotor and Caliper on new Axle:

Now, to get the Rotors on you may have some issues, because my new Axle was so new, the Emergency Brake Pads weren't worn down and prevented me from getting the Rotors on. I had to adjust the Emergency Brake by Rotating this little gadget. It basically just has a threaded middle and you can make it longer or shorter which just spaces the E-brake Pads, (This works backwards though so counter clockwise makes the brake pads further apart where as clockwise is what you are trying to accomplish in this case).
This is something that people may want to remember for later though as there is a small Rubber Grommet in the Brake Rotor that lets you adjust this without removing anything but the tire and the little Rubber Grommet.

Now that the Rotors are in place you need to put the Calipers back on the new Axle. Fairly simple, just reverse the steps for taking them off. Make sure you reconnect all the Brake Lines that run along the Axle though.
Rotor and Caliper in place;

Here is what you want with the Brake Lines. Once you have bolted the Calipers back into place, reconnect all the Brake Lines back to this point. If you'll remember, this is what the old Axle looked like when it was pulled out from under the truck. This will minimize any spillage of Brake Fluid as you can place the Axle back under the vehicle and then pull the Brake Lines from the Drain Bucket and immediately connect them to these lines.
Keep in mind that these lines are all full of air so your Brakes will need at least to be bled very well, but it might be best to just flush the Brake Lines completely.

You can clip everything back in place as well so all the Brake Lines are secured to the Axle;

The next step here is to get that new Axle under the truck. Again, I took no pictures as I had my hands full. Best way is the reverse of when you pulled the old Axle. Take the passenger side and get that through the passenger Leaf Spring and then you can manage the other end of the Axle much more easily.

Once you have the Axle resting on the Leaf Springs, before you bolt it down or do anything else, you might as well go ahead and connect the Brake Lines so you can quit worrying about spilling Brake Fluid.
Bring the Brake Lines down and bolt them right into the Hard Lines that you previously secured on the Axle. I didn't get any pictures of the process because I was hurrying to try and not spill any Brake Fluid. Here is the final product though.

Now that that is done, the Axle needs to be bolted into place and you can go about reconnecting everything. This is fairly simple, reverse whatever steps you took to remove your U-bolts. I highly recommend using new U-bolts however.

In my case, being that I had the U-bolt Flip Kit I had to do a little grinding. The M226 Axle has a clip for the ABS Line on each end that gets in the way of the U-bolt Flip Kit. This needs to be ground down. Many people just use a Hammer and bend it out of the way but personally I think that looks like crap and I don't clip the ABS Line there any more as I had to unclip them to let the Axle droop all the way, (Recommend you do the same if you have a lift).
Here are the tabs in question;

And here is the aftermath of a little Dremel work, no more tabs;

Now that those tabs are removed you can bolt the U-bolts back into place. I do not remember the exact Torque Specs on these but they can be found on this very forum.

NOTICE: MAKE SURE YOU TORQUE THESE! I have had a hand in 3 different trail fixes now where play developed in the U-bolts and eventually the Center Pin in the Leaf Pack was sheared which resulted in the Axle shifting around on the Leaf Springs while wheeling. This is not a fun trail fix, take the time to do it right now, (sorry about the lack of light, there was a time lapse here, took a break and forgot to take some of the pictures).

Now it's time to go back through and connect everything on the Axle.
E-brake Lines come first. Just reverse the steps you took when removing the Axle.
Something to think about here, if you have a decent amount of droop at your Rear Axle, may be "Customize", the E-brake Line Mounts a little so you can wheel in peace knowing that you are not going to damage any of the Brake or ABS Lines.
Bolt this Mount in first;

Then connect the cables and bolt the last part in;

I left this disconnected at the time, I have bent that mount and rotated it so that it can remain bolted in place but now allows far more droop without pulling hard on the E-brake Line.

Now go ahead and reconnect the ABS Lines.
The same care should be taken as with the E-brake Lines, to make sure that, at full droop the Axle does not damage the lines. What I have done is unclip them completely and then strategically place zip ties where they are most beneficial to let the ABS Line move as it needs to avoid damage, (Forgot to take pictures so reused these but this is what you are reconnecting).

Now reconnect your Driveshaft. If you got new bolts, use them, if not, I re-used mine but again, I'm not positive what the service manual calls for.

Finally it's time to bolt the Lower Shock Mounts back up. Again, just reversing steps here.

One of the last things here. Don't be that person that assumed that your new Axle came with Diff Fluid in it. Pull the cover off, check the axle out and make sure it's in good shape, (especially if you got a junkyard Axle) and then seal it up properly and fill it with some decent Diff Fluid.
Here is a link on how to swap the Diff Fluid.
How-to: Change Front & Rear Diff Lube Oil *CPL* - Second Generation Nissan Xterra Forums (2005+)

 

[Killswitch]

Wiring the E-locker with an Indicator Light

Alright, now that that is all done, you have a new axle ready to go. You can drive it as is or (if you installed an M226) you now need to wire up the E-locker which is how this whole How-to got started. Some of you may have seen Oz's thread on Wiring a Locker. His process is similar to what I wanted to do when wiring the Locker but the thread left out a lot of information on how the indicator light works. I recommend reading it as well though as it helped me set this all up.

What you will Need:
As with the list in post #1, this is not all inclusive, I just threw this in to try and help out. It is up to you to properly plan this out ahead of time and gather what parts you need for this project;

-decent pair of Wire Strippers
-Wire Cutters
-good Crimp Tool
-decent set of Wire Connectors
-3 x 20' lengths of 18gauge Wire
-miscellaneous length of 18gauge Wire to get power to the Switch etc. (again, use the diagram I've drawn and decide how much wire you need, the exact amount of wire will vary for each person depending how they do this)
-Electrical Tape
-Silicone
-Wire Coat Hanger (Don't steal your wife's as you will be destroying this)

Here is a rough Diagram of how I set this up.
The Blue Sea Fuse Block is already in place, it's running all my Lights right now and sits right behind my Glove Box. I used an available space and put a 5A Fuse there, this way when I pull the 5A Fuse and put it in the empty Fuse Holder there will be no power to the switch so that during all ON ROAD driving, even if I hit the Switch, nothing will happen. When I get offroad, just open the Glove Box and replace the 5A Fuse and you're ready to go.

This is not my best work as far as a diagram goes but I think it gets the job done. I did not label the wires as it creates clutter, hopefully no one is color blind as I just color coded the wires.

Coming from your Axle you have two plugs, one has a BLUE and GREY Wire coming from it, the other plug has a BLACK and BROWN Wire coming from it. (If you're a visual learner, briefly check out the first picture in post #4 of this thread to see the plugs at the Axle). The plug with the Blue and Grey is the Wiring to your Solenoid which is what physically Locks and Unlocks your Axle so, in short, these are the important ones! The other plug with the Black and Brown Wires though is the Indicator Light, while this may not be hugely important to wire up just to have a functioning Locker, to me going the little extra mile is what makes a project worth doing.

So, here is what each Wire is:
BLUE - Solenoid Positive (will come off Pin 3 on Switch)
GREY - Solenoid Negative (will Ground at Blue Sea)
BLACK - Indicator Light (will come off Pin 7 on Switch)
BROWN - other end of Indicator Light (Will connect with Grey Wire and ground at Blue Sea Fuse Box)

Important Notes on the Diagram:
-As far as connecting the GREY and BROWN wire, I just crimped them both securely into a single connector which will work fine. I ran that ground all the way to the blue sea as I know it is grounded well so it gives me peace of mind. If you want to find a closer ground, it will not hurt anything to ground it elsewhere as long as it is grounded properly.

-On PIN 8, that ground is just for the seperate light. It is the upper light on the switch that is internally wired, ground PIN 8 and that light will come on whenever the switch is turned on which will just let you know that you are in fact running 12V down to the Solenoid.

-Don't forget to make a small jumper (picture to follow) from PIN 2 to PIN 6. This gives you 12V at the positive for the indicator light at all times. Keep in mind, that light, even with constant power, cannot light up until it finds ground. It can't find ground until the switch between the BLACK and BROWN wire is closed by the locker engaging.

CLICK TO ENLARGE:

Important to the Indicator Light:
The Locker Indicator Light works off of a Switch. So, if you connect a Multimeter to the BLACK and BROWN Wire and measure the resistance while the Locker is Unlocked (meaning the solenoid does not have power to it) then you will see roughly 2 Megaohms, but if you measure that Resistance with the Solenoid Engaged (Locker being Locked) then you would see about .2 Ohms. So, you'll see that I have grounded out the BROWN Wire to the Chassis (will actually ground to my Blue Sea Fuse Block) but have taken the BLACK Wire up to the NEGATIVE for my independently wired lower light on the OTRATTW Switch and then created a jumper from my 12V Power Source (Pin 2) over to the POSITIVE for the independent lower light (Pin 6). What this does is when the Locker is Unlocked (Solenoid not Engaged) there is no electrical pathway for the light to find ground so the Light won't light up. The physical pathway will always be there in the form of the BLACK Wire, but because of the 2 Megaohms of Resistance, the light won't be able to ground itself to complete the circuit. As the Solenoid is Engaged, the Resistance goes away, the current finds a ground and the lower light lights up letting you know that your Rear Axle is Locked.

So, just to throw more diagrams at you here, this is a caveman drawing of how the Indicator Light Works.

Having this Indicator Light has been very helpful. You can almost always feel the Locker Engage when you hit the Switch however I could see the light and when I Locked it on pavement just to test it out briefly, the light lit up but the Solenoid was having trouble engaging as both tires had good traction. In this case I could see the light come on but then turn off once I moved the truck a little because the Locker Disengaged. In the reverse of that, once the Locker Engaged, when I wanted to Unlock it I could see that even though I cut the Switch off, the Light was still lit up, so I put the truck in reverse and watched as the stress was taken off the driveline and the Locker Disengaged.

So, here is the Switch that I'll be using:
OTRATTW :: Switch Body :: SPST ON/OFF :: Lower Independent Light :: V-SERIES SEALED ROCKER SWITCH, BODY ONLY, NO ROCKER
Important: This switch has a separate ground for both lights, that is imperative. If the lights share a common ground the indicator light will not work and the end result will actually be that you feed 12V down to the Solenoid at all times...which makes it engage...

And here is the switch cover that I'll be using:
(This way the picture of the Diff will light up when the switch is turned on and then when the Diff actually Locks the 'bar' across the bottom will light up)
OTRATTW :: Rocker Only :: Contura V :: Drivetrain :: CONTURA V, REAR LOCKER, ROCKER ONLY

Here is the Blue Sea Fuse Block.
Where you pull your 12V from is completely up to you. Many people decided to draw from the 4lo Switch so the Locker can only be engaged in 4lo which is an effective method. I wanted to have options and since I already had the blue sea in place, it provided the perfect location to draw power over to a switch. I did NOT use a relay of any kind, the OTRATTW Switch is rated at 12V 20A so it is more than capable of running the Locker without a relay. As far as the wiring from the Blue Sea over to the Switch, there are several openings that go right behind the dash there. One such opening is a pipe that runs right behind the 4lo Switch all the way across the dash. I believe it is there just as part of the frame behind the dash but it has nothing connected to it and provides a perfect tunnel to route wires though. (Picture to follow on that.)

Ok, so to kick this thing off, first identify where you want to bring the wiring into the cabin of the truck. For me, I used this hole you see in the picture. This is basically a thick tape that covers a plain hole. It is hard to tell in this picture but that hole, if you are looking up from under the vehicle, is right by your rear brake lines.

I'm getting ahead of myself here but this is a picture of the hole sealed back up with the wires going through it. Just wanted to calm those down that were worried about sealing the hole back up. You can see that I just filled it up with silicone. It hardened right up and is holding just fine. If you don't want to go this route, this would be another good option. I used these to route the wires for my lights through my roof.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BPVA2K/ref=wms_ohs_product

To reach the hole from the top you need to remove the little hide away cubby hole. There are just 5 screws holding it down, pull those out and it pulls right out.

I made a hole in the tape the simple way. I drove a small Screw Driver through it. (Don't worry, you can still seal this back up.)

Now, these wires are not connected to anything yet, we just decided to plumb all the wiring before hand so we could trim it on either end as needed. I ran 3 wires of 20' each (you will not use the full 20' but just to be safe). The red wire is the connection from my switch to the Blue (Positive) on the Solenoid, it is the only "Hot" wire running back to the Axle.

(Important: the Blue and Grey Wires cannot be reversed, many believe that you can because it's just a Solenoid in there but from any answers I could find it was claimed that this wouldn't work...although I don't know why.)

The other two Black Wires are both ground wires. One Black Wire is the ground for the Solenoid so it will run to the Grey Wire. The other Black Wire is the Ground for your Indicator Light so it will connect to the Black Wire.

IMPORTANT! Make sure you mark your wires on each end because once you have them plumbed up to the front of the vehicle, if you have any of the same color, you won't know which is which. To seal this hole back up I just took silicon and beaded it around the wires and let it dry, it adhered fine to the tape and shouldn't be any issue.

Run the wires right under the driver side of the rear passenger seat. The rug is not glued down there and is fairly simple to get the wire under although a coat hanger or something similar may be useful.

This is the bottom half of the rear driver side door. You can see the wires coming out from under the rug and running along the foot board up towards the driver seat.

That part is buttoned up.

This is just showing that the wires run all the way up the foot board and to the front pillar.

From there I came right up inside the pillar and ran the wires out to my switch.

Now, you see two RED Wires here, one Red Wire is the one that goes back to the Solenoid, the other RED Wire is the 12V Supply from the Blue Sea Fuse Block. The first Black Wire is not in this picture as it is the Ground (GREY WIRE) for the Solenoid so it goes over and Grounds on my Blue Sea. The second Black Wire will be connected to the Switch, it is the ground for your Indicator Light so it will connect to the Switch, run back to the Axle and eventually, once the Locker engages, it becomes linked to the BROWN Wire and shares a Ground on the Blue Sea Fuse Block. The final black Wire just grounds the Switch Light to the Blue Sea. Here's the back of the Switch;

I mentioned earlier that I made a Jumper at the Switch, this is how you make a Jumper.

For the Ground Wire and the 12V Supply from the Blue Sea Fuse Block, I ran right inside the dash under the Steering Wheel and through this little bar you see the wires going into in the picture. This is the bar I talked about earlier that runs behind the 4lo Switch.

Here is a picture of the Blue Sea Fuse Block on the other side.
5A Fuse plugged in the top spot (you can see the grounds on the bottom half)
I take no credit for the mess of wire taps behind the Blue Sea, that's OEM Nissan for you.

5A Fuse set to an empty spot and Locker and Switch now cannot accidentally Lock.

 

[Killswitch]

Final Step!

Now that all the wires are plumbed to the correct locations and connected at the switch and Blue Sea Fuse Block, it's time to connect everything back at the Axle to finish this project.

Here is what you have down at the Axle. If you don't have the OEM Wiring Harness for this, call Brian at Jersey Parts and he can get you the correct one. It will have two plugs to plug into the Axle here and you can basically do as Oz did in his thread and cut it a few feet back from the plugs.

Here is what the Harness looks like all finished down at the Axle. I will take a much close image for this so you can see the connections here but basically I used Barrel Connectors and Crimped them together. As long as you make a good connection here you will be fine but the ideal connection would be to Solder them all together. If you think of it before hand you could put Heat Shrink on there as well. I used wire loom and Electrical Tape all the way up the length of the exposed wiring harness just to make sure nothing got into the connections etc., if you look at the OEM Harness on the Pro-4X it's done the exact same way.

Here is a close up of the connections, you can see how I joined the GREY and BROWN wires.

Alright, now that that is all connected at the Axle, it's time to test everything. Provided that you used the same Switch as I did you should see the same results as you'll see in the pictures below this. I apologize for the bad pictures, the camera was not picking up the light of the Switch well so it may not be the best representation here but I can tell you that in person it's very easy to tell what the Switch is showing.

I skipped the plain picture of the Switch Shut Off with Locker Disengaged as it simply looks like the black switch...

Anyways, here is the first shot. This is the Switch Turned 'ON', but the Solenoid did not Engage right away. So, the upper light came on just to let me know that I was in fact feeding 12V down to the Solenoid but that the Locker hadn't Engaged. Again, this Light is just run off the Switch Power so it's sole purpose in life is to come 'ON' and 'OFF' with the Switch.
As I said earlier, it looks a lot like the bottom light is lit in this picture as well but it isn't, the camera was just picking up any light and making it more noticeable. You'll notice this in the next couple pictures as well.

This picture shows the Switch on with the Locker Engaged correctly, the lower light (Indicator Light) came 'ON' as soon as the Axle Locked and of course the upper light remained 'ON'.

Just as a Note: Almost every time I tested this the Diff Locked right up with no issues whatsoever, (In the picture above this I was causing it not to Lock in order to get that picture), but what I did notice was that every now and again, if you were in a hurry, the Solenoid would Engage and my Indicator Light would Light-up, but then go out, because the Locker hadn't fully Engaged. No issue here, take your time and it will Lock right up, just putting it out there so if someone sees that Light Blink a little they don't stress it.

This picture is one of the main reasons I really wanted the Indicator Light. In this picture the switch is 'OFF', no Power is getting to the Solenoid, but the lower light (Indicator Light) is still Illuminated. This is because I did the test in a paved parking lot and once the Diff Locked, I cut the wheels a little and let it bind just a bit. As soon as it did I stopped and cut the switch off to Unlock the Diff, because the Driveline had stress on it the Diff stayed Locked for the next little bit.

This is why it was important to me to get this particular Switch, the other Switch I linked in post #3 would not have worked for this. In this case though, even with the switch off the Indicator Light stays Illuminated to let you know that the Locker is Still Engaged. Now, in most cases this would resolve itself fairly quickly and if it didn't, a little common sense let's you feel when the Locker is still Engaged, but hey, as I have said before, we have the capability to have an Indicator Light, why not go the extra mile and make it work properly, (Yet again, sorry about the crappy pics, I tried for a while to get better ones but the camera was insistent on making it look as though the whole Switch was lit. If you see it in person though it's very clear which light is lit).

Well, that's it! This is just one way of accomplishing this goal. Everyone will have their own take on this and I'm sure there are better ways of doing this but I hope this helps some out in the future.

The final step is getting out and wheeling it.

If anyone sees any misinformation in here or simple typos, please let me know and I will fix the issue.

 

[piratex]

Great write up

 

[Boogyman]

Nice write up. Only saw a few grammar mistakes, but common sense should get a normal person past them. Hope it is all working according to plan.

 

[Killswitch]

Ya, everything works perfectly, to include the indicator light.

As for the grammar mistakes, ya, I wrote this at midnight lastnight, the whole thing will be edited as I need to add to it anyway

 

[Killswitch]

Everything is edited and updated. The last thing to do is finish post #3. I need to get better pictures and put in a better wiring diagram which should be done by the end of the day. I'll also get some completed pictures of the switch locked and unlocked.

Any feedback would be great. The write up on the wiring was a pain in the neck for me so I'm not sure if it is actually written clearly or if it just makes sense in my head.
If anyone sees anything I should change let me know.

 

[Julionix]

Great write up!
I was thinking if doing a how to for this once I get my axle swap in a few weeks, but it wouldn't have been as thorough as yours!
Good work man!
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Killswitch]

Thanks man, any feed back is appreciated. Going through and editing everything now to try and make sure ADD didn't take over part way through haha.

The steps should be in place now though, all I have to do is add to post #4 with a couple pictures of the new switch when it comes in and it should be all set. Operative word there being "should".

 

[Surf and Snow]

Nice work! Congrats on the locker! Beware, once word gets out, your X will be covered in panties every time you park it longer than 5 minutes. Locker = dropping panties

 

[Killswitch]

^haha! It's funny you said that, I have actually made that joke to my girlfriend. I told her she'd have to be tolerant of it for a bit. Luckily she has been with me long enough to see the humor in that.

 

[sleeper00]

Awesome how to buddy!

 

[MUDLOVER55]

hey dude great write up!

 

[Killswitch]

^Thanks guys, just checked the tracking number for my switch and it looks like it's sitting at my house so when I get home tonight I can take the last few pictures with the switch buttoned up and what not.

 

[Killswitch]

Done! The switch came in today so I finalized that and added the pictures to the end of the how-to.

For anyone reading this or using this, please let me know if you see any issues throughout.

 

[1NonlyX]

Hey Chris if someone wanted a better indicator they can get a switch from otrattw that has two different colors. This is the kind of switch I have for my lights, when its not on its blue and when I turn on the lights it turns red. It would be the same concept for the locker.

 

[Killswitch]

^thats a good idea. If you have a link to the switch you used throw it up here

 

[1NonlyX]

Here is the link to the otrattw web site there is to many light color configuration and part # for each that all they would have to do is just look for these specs.

http://www.otrattw.com/


DOUBLE LIGHTED SWITCHES.

Upper LED is independently wired.
Lower LED is ON when the switch is turned ON.
Each LED has its own ground terminal.Five terminal switch with no rear barriers between terminals.

 

[Killswitch]

Thanks man, when I asked you to link that switch I had forgotten our discussion from before that.

All that is good information though. The important thing there is that each light is on it's own ground so that you don't accidentally create an electrical pathway through the light bulbs and down to the solenoid. (Although I'm not sure that it would be a problem with LEDs, it is with the incandescent bulbs so might as well be safe)